All posts tagged: tree

Inside One Tree Hill star Barbara Alyn Wood’s acting dynasty with 3 famous daughters

Inside One Tree Hill star Barbara Alyn Wood’s acting dynasty with 3 famous daughters

Published by Daniella Wilson

Barbara Alyn Woods is known for her roles in television series One Tree Hill and Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, but she’s also the matriarch of an acting dynasty, raising the next generation of actors in her daughters Natalie Alyn Lind, Emily Alyn Lind, and Alyvia Alyn Lind. Barbara has been acting professionally since the 1980s, starring alongside Demi Moore in 1996’s Striptease, as the mom Diane Szalinski in TV series Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, and as Deb Scott on teen drama series One Tree Hill. She married assistant director John Lind, whom she met on the set of Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, in 1999, and they welcomed their three girls between 2000 and 2007; Barbara and John divorced in 2021. © WireImageBarbara Alyn Woods, (C) with Natalie (2L), Emily (2R) and Alyvia in 2012 “Our family is very female-centric – we even have female dogs,” Barbara told HELLO! at the 2026 Gracie Awards, where she was joined by Natalie and Alyvia. “I’ve been to the Gracie Awards several times without them, and this is the first time …

Hiker stumbles on 6th century gold sword scabbard under fallen tree

Hiker stumbles on 6th century gold sword scabbard under fallen tree

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A hiker who paused to examine an old, uprooted tree found something much rarer than roots during a recent walk in the hills of Norway. According to a team of archaeologists from the University of Stavanger, the man’s morning stroll unexpectedly revealed a 1,500-year-old sword scabbard crafted from gold. Its owner likely wasn’t a lowly soldier, either. Based on the artistic skill and material, the embellishment’s original weapon probably belonged to a prominent leader or chieftain who ruled during the 6th century. The remarkable find remained buried for centuries in the Norwegian district of Austrått, not far from the country’s southwest coast. The small adornment measures about 2.4 inches wide and less than one inch tall, while weighing around 1.15 ounces. Although tiny, the accessory signified immense authority and power. It’s also an incredibly rare artifact.Only 17 other similar pieces are known throughout northern Europe. “The odds of finding something like this are minimal,” University of Stavanger archaeologist Håkon …

Amazonian dark earth increases tree diameter by up to 88%

Amazonian dark earth increases tree diameter by up to 88%

Published by Jenni Sidey

A patch of poor soil on a former cassava field in Amazonas turned into a small test of an old Amazonian secret. Researchers in Brazil found that tiny amounts of Amazonian dark earth, a human-made soil built up over centuries by pre-Columbian peoples, gave two native tree species a clear early advantage in degraded land. In the first 180 days after planting, pink trumpet tree seedlings grew up to 55% taller and developed stems 88% thicker than untreated plants. Brazilian firetree seedlings also grew faster, gaining 20% in height and 15% in stem diameter. That kind of jump matters in places where forests have been cleared, soils compacted, and recovery slowed by years of agricultural use. It also hints that the power of Amazonian dark earth, often called ADE or terra preta, may lie in more than fertility alone. “The key factor was not the amount of nutrients per se, which doesn’t vary much, but rather the microorganisms, which were quite different, especially the fungi. In plants treated with dark earth, the microbiota around the …

I’m a pharmacologist. Here’s the truth about tea tree oil and fertility

I’m a pharmacologist. Here’s the truth about tea tree oil and fertility

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the Well Enough newsletter with Harry Bullmore for tips on living a healthier, happier and longer life Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore Get the Well Enough email with Harry Bullmore The heady scent of tea tree is one of the iconic smells of the Australian bush. And the essential oils derived from tea trees have been used as medicines, first by Indigenous people, then by colonists. Today, many of us have a bottle of tea tree oil at home, or use shampoo or creams containing it. Tea tree oil is also a major export earner for Australia. Now, media reports suggest the European Union (EU) is concerned that tea tree oil may affect people’s fertility and may ban imports. Let’s see whether we really need to worry about any impact of tea tree oil on our reproductive system. The many uses of tea tree oil Leaves of Melaleuca alternifolia trees and other species of Melaleuca produce an essential oil that’s used medicinally and in a variety of toiletries and cosmetics. This …

Meet Earl Grey, the sea turtle with a wild family tree

Meet Earl Grey, the sea turtle with a wild family tree

Published by Jenni Sidey

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. A rare type of sea turtle is on the road to recover at the Georgia Sea Turtle Center in Jekyll Island, Georgia. But this reptile is the offspring of a surprising parent duo: a Kemp’s ridley sea turtle (Lepidochelys kempii) mother and a Loggerhead sea turtle father (Caretta caretta). That makes the sea turtle in question, named Earl Grey, a first-generation hybrid sea turtle.  Kemp ridleys are the world’s smallest and most endangered species of sea turtle, and they only nest in two locations in Texas and Mexico. The IUCN categorizes them as critically endangered. Loggerheads are the second largest hard-shelled sea turtle and are about 2.4- to 3.5-feet-long. They are significantly bigger than Kemp’s ridleys, and nest across multiple oceans.  In fact, Georgia Sea Turtle Center director Jaynie L. Gaskin tells Popular Science that the union of Earl Grey’s parents is interesting because the two species have notably different size, behavior, and nesting patterns. So what does that …

Country diary: A tree can define a landscape – even when it has fallen | Trees and forests

Country diary: A tree can define a landscape – even when it has fallen | Trees and forests

Published by Sam Flores

How quickly something that defines a landscape for centuries becomes the absence that redefines it – so it is with ancient trees. The trunk snapped like a carrot at the roots and crashed, its bony branches splintered. Now it lies like a shipwreck stranded in an open field, its hulk of twigs an animal pelt stilled. A day before, looking at its 300-year-old architecture of mostly dead wood yet so vividly alive, admiring its form and persistence through years and trouble, standing alone with spring coursing through the land and its timbers, I wondered how long, in tree time, it had left. Storm Dave answered quickly: “None.” This fallen tree is a common lime, Tilia x europaea, a hybrid of our native small-leaved lime, T. cordata, and large-leafed lime, T. platyphyllos; probably of natural origins, probably introduced, but certainly common since 17th- and 18th-century plantings. Back then it was called the Dutch lime because so many were planted from Dutch nurseries in parks, avenues, gardens and streets in the baroque style throughout Europe. This common …